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By Courtney Lear Twin Peaks “We’re trying to convince a bunch of 40-year-old men that we’re something beyond ‘chick rock’ and it’s impossible,” says Tegan Quin of the indie rock duo Tegan and Sara. “But I think the day I start concerning myself with what critics in the industry and radio are thinking it’s doing no one any good. You can’t second-guess yourself.” The identical twins from Canada have spent the last eight years finding their sound, changing their minds and making no apologies. Starting in the ’90s with a folk-rock disposition worthy of the Lilith Fair stage they played, they migrated to poppier territory without losing heart. Their latest, The Con, produced by Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla, is filled with catchy hooks, punchy bass lines and the duo’s signature soul-baring lyrics. But it was 2004’s So Jealous that first made indie kids giddy about the pair. The album also scored mainstream airplay, including a spot on ABC’s medical drama Grey’s Anatomy with “Where Does the Good Go?” It was a long way from the New York dive bars of their early career, playing on tiny stages to uninterested audiences with the Metro rattling the ceiling above. “I just remember thinking, ‘I f*cking hate my life. Why are we doing this?’” says Quin. “Now we put 3,000-seat venues on sale and they’re sold out months in advance. Wow, it really changed. We really believed in ourselves and it feels like, ‘Thank God.’ Look what we would have missed out on. So much good stuff, if we’d given up.” However, their “arrival” was bittersweet. Coming from a very liberal household, the Quin sisters were raised as feminists, to be strong, independent women who believed in equality between races and sexes. “Then I got into the real world and there’s no room in alternative radio for more than one girl at a time,” she says. “When ‘Walking with a Ghost’ broke alternative radio charts there was this moment where I was like, ‘We’re the only girls. There’s 40 bands here and we’re the only ones.’” As women in a male-dominated music industry, they had to learn early on to assert themselves and take charge. They are now more than comfortable ordering their guys around. Quin admits she can be a bit emotional and demanding, expecting the same dedication she expends from her band members, but she has her sister to keep her grounded. “The second one of us starts to take flight with anything, it doesn’t just have to be rock star antics, even in our business, the other one is always there to be like, ‘Alright, sport, time to calm down,’” she says. “It’s a good balance but at the same time I would never ever expect a member of our band to punch me in the face, which could potentially happen with Sara.” From humble beginnings to indie rock stardom, from folk-rock to alt-pop, Tegan and Sara have a drive and artistic defiance that resists convenient molds. “We’re songwriters absolutely but we’ll do whatever we want and we’ll play whatever kind of music we want,” she says. “Our records are going to sound different from record to record and you’re going to have to reclassify us.” For Quin, what will remain the same is the satisfaction she feels from empathetic fans connecting with her words. As with most art, she acknowledges that once her personal songs reach fans it’s not about her anymore. “I’ll tell you most of the people that are laying in bed, crying, listening to ‘Nineteen’ because they just broke up with their girlfriend aren’t thinking, ‘I wonder what Tegan was feeling?’,” she says. “They’re thinking, ‘Thank God someone wrote this song because this is exactly how I feel.’ It’s about them.” On the web: teganandsara.com |
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Copyright © 2002 Mean Street Magazine, LLC |
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